Hyperglycemia-related pathophysiologic mechanisms and potential beneficial actions of melatonin.

Chronically-elevated blood glucose initiates a harmful series of processes in which toxic reactive species play crucial roles. Oxidative as well as nitro-oxidative stress is harmful for virtually all biomolecules including lipids, proteins and DNA. Such pathophysiologic mechanisms eventually results in cellular dysfunction, apoptosis or necrosis. Melatonin is a multifunctional indolamine which counteracts several pathophysiologic steps and displays significant beneficial effects against hyperglycemia-induced cellular toxicity. These are related to melatonin's antioxidative, anti-inflammatory and possibly epigenetic regulatory properties. Current knowledge encourages using this non-toxic indolamine either as a sole treatment or in conjunction with other treatments for inhibition of the biohazards of hyperglycemia.